And now for something completely different… Pirate flags are the first sign…

Team Numb comfortably launched a fat rocket on a P7000 motor to loft a full beer keg over a mile high straight up.

• Keg: 175 lbs of beer. Roots. From Oregon.
• Motor: 60 lbs of Alumaflame solid rocket propellant (looks like gray styrofoam, but burns in a violet flame). This home brew P motor is twice as big as what you can buy, and you can buy a cruise missile booster from Cesaroni Aerospace in Canada.
• Altitude: 6,100 ft. Perfect flight.
• Results: Beer shaken, not stirred, and tapped at the landing site.

The launch donut stayed on the nosecone for a surprisingly long time. The rear-deployed chute shredded under the strain, reducing but not eliminating its effectiveness. So, the keg returneth…. much like the Mars landing bounce:

Here is the team video, with a hearty roar:

I just love the voices… From the team videographer:
“OMG… it’s out dude. OMG. It worked!”

(such faith in the project. ;-) and the event LCO (Launch Control Officer):

Art,
So your saying the next mission should be a beer keg suborbital flight to India?

No one should hang thier head in shame if they have a can do attitude and rise to the challenge!

The biggest problems I see are; reentry heating, and that being below the equator, and previously subject to british tradition, all the taps are south-paw there.

If a CO2 tank is added, it can provide for guidance control actuation at launch and reentry, active payload cooling, and inflation of Kevlar aerobrake bag, which serves double duty as a landing cushion, and finally, payload pressurization for even distrubution to the thirsty masses.

If we had backing from the brewery it would be a commercial flight [In every way]. Recent streamlining in commercial spaceflight regs make it much easier than before. An Indian Customs agent will have to be 1st at the tap though.
I figure on launching southeast from Texas to come across middle to southern Africa, avoiding the middle east and Pakistan. The rest of those countries can pass the request for us not to, via N.Korea.